Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010

Technical Report
ATWS – Adventure
Travel World
Summit 2010.
PURAVERA S.L.
Detailed report of the Adventure Travel World
Summit 2010 in Scotland. Includes; assistance,
activities, strategic alliances, tour operator meetings,
training and seminars, among others..

PURAVERA S.L.

Avenida de la Vera Alta nº
6. CP: 10450 –Jarandilla
dela Vera. Cáceres

+34 927 560 429

+34 927 561 362

25/01/2011

Technical Report ATWS – Adventure Travel World Summit 2010

Contenido
First day Monday 04 ...................................................................................................................... 2
My trip to the Adventure Travel World Summit 2010 – Scotland ............................................ 2
Monday 4th October. ................................................................................................................. 2
Back at the Conference center:................................................................................................. 8
From Armageddon to Utopia … Business as Unusual ............................................................... 9
Reinventing Conservation ....................................................................................................... 10
ACCESSING Creativity .............................................................................................................. 10
Tuesday 5 .................................................................................................................................... 12
Shire of la Vera as representative of adventure travel – Scotland Summit 2010 (Day 2
Meetings) ................................................................................................................................ 12
Adventure Tourism Research and Trends ............................................................................... 21
Sustainability Vs Development / Adventure Tourism Issues – OPEN FORUM. ....................... 25
Transformative thinking - IMAGINE / INNOVATE / SHARE ..................................................... 28
Imagine ................................................................................................................................ 28
Innovate .............................................................................................................................. 28
Share.................................................................................................................................... 29
Wednesday 6th October. ............................................................................................................ 31
Discover, Engage & Deliver Awakening Destinations: ............................................................ 31
Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism – Case Studies: .................................................... 34
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING .................................................................................................... 37
Sustainable Tourism Best Practices: From theory to Action. .................................................. 37
Jueves 4 de Octubre Thursday 7th of October. .......................................................................... 42
CRASH COURSES –Social Media – Digging Deeper … beyond Awareness Building. ............... 42
Visual Story Telling – Producing & Publishing Quality Video on a Dime. ................................ 46
Traditional &online Marketing: Blending the Best of Both Worlds ........................................ 50
Transformative Thinking ......................................................................................................... 56
Cooperate – Conservation Alliance ..................................................................................... 56
John Sterling – Executive Director, The Conservation Alliance ........................................... 56
Nurture – Keith Bellows – Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Traveler.............................. 56
Inspire ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi – Executive Director, Afghan Institute of Learning ................................. 57

1
www.puravera.es info@puravera.es Tel: 927 560 429


First day Monday 04

My trip to the Adventure Travel World Summit 2010 – Scotland

We set form the shire of la Vera on the Sunday morning to Madrid. We are excited by the
experience we are about to embark, we leave to Scotland on our flight and even though we
are delayed two hours inside the plane because one of the crew members has too many flight
hours and has to be replaced, we eventually reach Edinburg airport. It is night time and we still
have to drive to Aviemore at the north of Scotland where the summit is held. We eventually
arrive at the Macdonald complex at 11.00 pm! Long first day but very excited to finally be
there!

Monday 4th October.
After we have registered and been given our identification we set out to the auditorium for the
opening ceremony. First day is activity day and we have chosen the tour Aviemore Adventure.

The activities are to create a sense of community and partnership in the summit. All members
have been given the possibility to participate in order for new member like us to get to know
some of the colleagues in the industry.

Some of the activities included where;
2


• Wild Class White Water Rafting
• Canoeing and Whisky Tour
• Sea Kayaking (Dolphins)
• Gorge Walking
• Sailing on Loch
• Wildlife Tours
• Cairngorms Golf
• Hill walking, Orienteering
• Red Dear stalking
• Loch Ness Walk and Boat Trip
• Skyline Mountain Walk
• Aviemore adventure
• Land and Sustainability management of Estate.
• Among others.

Before we leave to our adventures we have the opening ceremony. This is a great opportunity
for Scotland to promote their adventure tourism based on experiences. There are more than
25 activities planned and it’s a great opportunity to meet tour-operators, reservation and
booking agents, media and experts from the sector.

3


Our activity was Aviemore adventure and consisted on a walking / trekking trip through the
Glenmore forest of until we reach the Loch Morlich. This was a great experience where we
walked through the forest which is a remnant of the Caledonian Forest near Aviemore in the
Cairngorms National Park. This native Scottish forest transports you to your childhood and
thanks to the good weather that accompanied us we could see the beginning of the autumn
with the changing colors of the trees.

4


Finally we arrive at the Loch Morlich, one of the many lakes that can be found in the area in
between the hill landscape that can be found in the park. After a quick chat and explaining
some of the basics of canoeing we set to cross the lake. At mid-day we have lunch on one of
the banks of the lake.

5


We are able to paddle our way to the other side of the Loch, from where we cycled back to
Aviemore. On the way back we crossed some very nice tracks through the Scottish forest,
stopping at another Loch where we could see an old construction in the middle of the lake. It
seemed an old castle which used to have a passage before the level of the Loch was risen.

6


Very nice adventure, we had a great time and meet some really good people who have very
similar of looking at life and what is really important. Hope that the connections that we made
this day continue and that the things we set out to accomplish in sustainable tourism become
a reality. Thank you to the Active Outdoor Pursuits team that made this tour possible!
7


At the end of the day we are brought back to the auditorium of the MacDonald Aviemore
Resort.

Back at the Conference center:

Shannos Stowell, ATTA President, welcomes us to the 7th adventure travel world summit in
Aviemore, Scotland.

“… in this digital age, where social media, mobile connectivity and online meetings define much
of our interaction, the ATTA still firmly believe that to come together, shake hands, laugh,
debate and deepen friendships through personal human interaction creates more progress and
lasting relationship that matter that any electronic alternative can offer”.

He puts forward the idea that we are selling experiences and that it is the time to use this
opportunity and get the best of this summit.

“This event is about education, knowledge, sharing, inspiration and relationship building
through work and fun”.

“This event promotes adventure travel business grow and thrive responsibly. The group of
collaborators is a group for good, bringing much needed revenue to local economies around
the world and turning customer’s into lifelong advocates of responsible tourism practices”.

Shanon Sotwell.

After the opening speech, there are several special presentations:

Adventure travel is defined as activities in the outdoors with specific interest to maintaining
the cultural heritage and economically developing remote regions. (People, Planet & Profit)

8


From Armageddon to Utopia … Business as Unusual

“Costas Christ is an award-winning travel writer and Editor at Large for National Geographic
Traveler. He is one of the world’s pioneers of ecotourism (he helped to officially define the
term) and is an internationally renowned expert in sustainable tourism, traveling to over 100
countries, including some of the most remote wilderness areas and archeological sites on Earth,
home to vanishing cultures and endangered species”.

Shows us through a very compelling video how adventure tourism and discovering new areas
has also the risk of destroying them. Tries to give a wakeup call to all of us on the dangers and
the need of the industry to work together to try to develop regions in a sustainable manner in
order to not repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

From his 30 years of experience he sees the future of tourism focusing on authenticity,
sustainability, (travel good), experience, interactive experience which he defines as:

• “Travel as unusual / green travel”.

Some interesting examples he gives includes;

• Airport that uses the movement of the people within the building to get their planes as
the source of renewable energy.
• The underwater hotel build as skyscraper upside down where the bottom will bne
used for marine research and it will be powered with wind, tidal and solar energy.

9


Dr Wallace “J” Nichols. has undertaken the task of reaching new constituencies with a positive
and inclusive conservation message and building a network of like-minded people, from diverse
regions, backgrounds and careers who share a commitment to maintaining abundant life in the
oceans and on the coasts.

He is a Scientist, activist and above all a father with a deep connection with nature.

In his speech he works on the idea that the sector and the different agents, touroperators,
town councils, private companies have to work together and collaborate to create lifelong
lasting relations to help develop the world.

“J” and Costas end up with the song “All you need is Love” from the Beatles.

Reinventing Conservation
“John Kasaona (conservationist) is a pioneer of community-based conservation -- working with
the people who use and live on fragile land to enlist them in protecting it.”

He brought the inspiration that there all also good case studies of conservation in Africa and in
his case in Namibia. The achievement he describes comes from the transformation of poachers
into conservation agents for the conservation of the Rhino. All of this thanks to empowering
the local community and learning how to listen to the local needs.

Very good example of sustainable tourism outside protected areas can bring development to
regions and countries.

Better to hear him explain it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoF4FHCbHwU

ACCESSING Creativity
“Judith Fein, award-winning travel journalist, photographer, filmmaker and teacher, has
contributed to over 80 publications and is a regular travel columnist for three”.

New Yorker Judy, tried to teach us that everyone is creative, from 15-85 years. Creativity is
important to achieve new ways of living! She put forward the idea that “because everybody
thinks it does not work it doesn’t make it real”.

We ended up all dancing on the auditorium!

10


The night finished with the Scotland opening dinner!

Music, Shinding, Kilt, every one enjoying the traditional food!

Sponsors: MACDONALD Aviemore Resort / Visit Scotland /Cairngorms National Park, The
Highland Council!

This is just the first day at the Adventure travel World Summit!! I will continue with the
description of the strategic alliances, seminar and lectures and future trends of the sector in
future posts!

Follow us on our blog: Rural-aacommodations (http://rural-accommodations.blogspot.com/)

11


Tuesday 5

Shire of la Vera as representative of adventure travel – Scotland
Summit 2010 (Day 2 Meetings)

Tuesday 5th of October is the AFAR exchange! This is the main time for meeting tour operators,
reservation agents, experts and other similar business in other remote areas of the world.
This day meetings were organized by the ATTA – Adventure Travel Trade Association and
sponsored by the AFAR magazine! (http://www.afar.com/)

The first part of the day was Media in the AFAR Exchange which was held in the Four Seasons
Restaurant of the Macdonald Complex in Aviemore -Scotland! We were given the opportunity
to meet the press from around the globe and present our destination in the international
arena. We focused on creating exposure for the shire of la Vera as a responsible destination.

Some of the media that we contacted include;

• Deputy Editor and Travel and Business development for
o TRAVEL + LEISURE (http://www.travelandleisure.com/)
• Judith Fein Writer and Journalist in the
o Adventure Travel Industry. (http://www.globaladventure.us)
12


• Founder and President and Director of Strategic Partnerships of
o Green Living Project (http://www.greenlivingproject.com/)
• Public Relations
o Sublime (http://www.sublimepub.com/)
• Martin Müller Journalist and Photograph for diverse German Magazines
• Managing Partner of Marketing and Publicity company:
o Myriad (http://www.myriadmarketing.com/)
• Senior editor at:
o National Geographic Traveller (http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/)
• Jonny Jet from Jonny Jet website /Blog (http://www.johnnyjet.com)
• Ellen Barone from Ellen Barone website / Blog (http://ellenbarone.com/)
• Among others.

Note that not all these contacts where established only on this established time but also
during the various days that we were interrelating with all the attendees of the summit. There
were a number of opportunities to meet and get to know different people during the summit,
on the lunches, breaks and not only the preset meetings.

After this session it was the AFAR Exchange were PURAVERA had a table at the event and the
buyers (Outbound touroperators) where able to meet the suppliers (Inbound touroperators,
us).

The meetings where organized by cris-crossing the 95 suppliers with the 50 o so Buyers that is
outbound tour operators! Finally we were set around 15 meetings with 15 to 20 minutes
duration to fix possible itineraries that would be of interest to both parties from the ATTA Hub
network.

We had the great opportunity to meet many people with interest in the Spanish market. Even
though Extremadura was not well Known by the tour operators, we used the Spain tourism
strength (thanks that some had trips already organized to the country) and presented the shire
of la Vera as a new upcoming destinations, focusing on its natural, cultural and historical
heritage and of course its food (gastronomy, culinary) to attract responsible tourism.

The strengths that we used to differentiate from the competition include:

• We benefited from the name of Spain in the tourism sector
• Tour-operators know the quality of accommodation, security and the experience of
Spain!
• We were the only representative of Spain! Very good as it’s the first time a Spanish
company is in the summit!
• Offer Package adventure activities with unique accommodations
• We focus on sustainability and the development of the region through responsible
tourism.
• Adventure travel means a travel in the outdoors, with activities, natural, cultural
gastronomical, adventure of any type but with a deep focus on maintain the historical
heritage and developing economically the local region.

13


• We believe adventure travel is the future and even though today is not mainstream is
where the tourism sector is moving and every day tourist look for unique experiences
and look for new destinations.
• We offer the destination where Charles de V The emperor retired, great cultural and
historical heritage.
• Offer natural habitats and a great destination for bird watching, among others.
• Gastronomical (culinary) offer is very diverse being the land of the Iberian Pig, among
others.

Tour operators mainly demanded; one week to 10 day trip through the shire, with various
activities (hiking, cycling, natural or cultural, among others) depending on the customer but
mainly focused on moving along the shire to visit various areas in the trip!

Hopefully the trips and tours that we are organizing will be of interest and we will reduce of
the main issues in the shire which is the seasonality of the tourism! International travels and
more specifically adventure travel on different dates!

We are programming some seasonal tours on autumn for example related with mushroom
picking, winter with the festivities of the area, spring with the blossom of the cherries or nuts
and summer with the water activities that the shire offers! Among others.

Some of the companies we had the pleasure to meet during the AFAR include:

• Active Adventure Travel and Tours: http://activeadventuretravelandtours.co.uk/
• TravelDragon & The Dragon's Path: http://traveldragon.com
• Alyson Adventures: http://www.alysonadventures.com
• Wilderness Travel: http://www.wildernesstravel.com
• J. Arnold Executive Search: http://www.jarnoldsearch.com/
• iExplore / Adventure Center: http://www.iexplore.com / www.adventurecenter.com
• KE Adventure Travel: http://keadventure.com
• Sublime Public Relations: http://www.sublimepub.com
• Mountain Travel Sobek - http://www.mtsobek.com
• Speyside Wildlife - http://www.speysidewildlife.co.uk
• Luxury adventure trips – http://www.luxuryadventuretrips.com
• Wild Guanabana - Life Changing Journeys: www.wildguanabana.com
• ATMS – Adventure Media Travel news: http://www.atmstravelnews.com
• Gray & Co - Cari Gray: http://grayandco.ca
• Smokesilver travel: http://www.smokesilvertravel.com
• The Wayfarers – http://www.thewayfarers.com
• Maritaca turismo: www.maritacaturismo.com.br
• Among others.

Type Company Description
Outbound Active Adventure Travel Startup UK outbound Tour Operator specializing in
tour and Tours: multi-activity tours to Southern Africa, Nth and Central
14


operator http://activeadventuretra America, Europe.
velandtours.co.uk/
Consultancy, TravelDragon & The World of unique travel experiences.
Outbound Dragon's Path: TravelDragon.com, search engine for
Tour- http://traveldragon.com/ experiential/adventure travel itineraries and unique
operator accommodations.
Web 2.0 Search from 6000+ of tours and properties offered by
Social Media over 500 of the best small/medium size travel
providers focused on active/adventure, cultural,
nature, learning, sustainable/green, volunteering,
culinary, and family travel categories.
Outbound Alyson Adventures: Alyson Adventures offers biking, hiking, kayaking,
tour http://www.alysonadvent diving, rafting and multi-sport trips to 30 countries
operator ures.com around the world. Our primary clientele are gay men,
lesbians and their friends, mostly from the United
States, but some from Canada and Europe as well.
Outbound Wilderness Travel: A leader in adventure travel since 1978, Wilderness
tour http://www.wildernesstra Travel offers innovative journeys on all seven
operator vel.com continents, featuring expert trip leaders, meticulously
planned itineraries, and small groups. We offer
trekking expeditions, wildlife safaris, inn to inn hiking,
archaeology tours, sea kayaking, and expedition
cruising, as well as our acclaimed Special Events
We offer: natural, cultural, sports and gastronomical
tours
Consultant J. Arnold Executive Search Travel Tourism specialists, Specializations include
http://www.jarnoldsearch Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Operations,
.com/ and Executive Leadership
Tour iExplore / Adventure iExplore was chosen for National Geographic’s annual
Wholesaler Center: list of the Best Travel Companies on Earth. We offer
http://www.iexplore.com; unique adventure travel experiences that suit almost
www.adventurecenter.co every taste out there, from the heart-pounding rush of
m zip lining in Costa Rica to the awe-inspiring ice-blue
glaciers of Antarctica.
Outbound KE Adventure Travel: Britain's leading Independent Adventure Travel
Tour- http://keadventure.com specialist, with 26 years’ experience operating the
operator finest holidays in the world’s greatest mountain
ranges. Trek, climb, bike, family, school. Explore
Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Himalayas and
beyond.
Media / Sublime Public Relations Specializes in generating publicity in North America
Marketing / http://www.sublimepub.c and beyond for a select group of clients.
Advertising om Areas of expertise currently include sporting goods,
recreational real estate, exclusive clubs and travel.
Outbound Mountain Travel Sobek - Offes; active, small-group tours all over the world since
Tour http://www.mtsobek.com 1969. We specialize in hiking and river rafting, but also
Operator offer adventure cruise expeditions, sea kayaking, and
culture focused adventures.
Inbound Speyside Wildlife - Bird, mammal and wildlife watching holidays, in
Tour http://www.speysidewildli Scotland and around the world, for guests of all ages,
Operator fe.co.uk interests and abilities. In addition, provides tailor-
made tours for individuals and groups of all sizes.
Has a Tour in Extremadura
Travel Luxury adventure trips – kayaking, hiking, mountain climbing, zip lining, whale-
Agency http://www.luxuryadvent watching, on safari or meeting people from cultures
uretrips.com way different from your own.

15


The luxury part of the adventure is our taking care of
you: Making sure you have a comfortable bed,
delicious food, incredible wine. Completing all the
logistics before and during your trip so all you have to
do is enjoy yourself to your fullest. Now, that’s true
luxury.
Inbound Wild Guanabana - Life WILD GUANABANA is centered on the belief that the
Tour- Changing Journeys world is an incredible place truly worth exploring and
operator Intellectual Guanabana discovering. That by removing ourselves from the
wildguanabana.com annoyances of everyday life and taking on new and
challenging experiences, be it discovering a new
culture, seeing an incredible sunrise or climbing a
mountain, we grow and learn more about ourselves in
ways we never thought possible. We fondly think of
ourselves as a platform for Life Changing Journeys to
unfold and know nothing more fulfilling than creating
and sharing these experiences with others.
Industry ATMS – Adventure Media Adventure Media provides PR services for the
Partner Travel news adventure travel industry.
http://www.atmstravelne Adventure Media is a media relations and
ws.com marketing communications company focused
on the adventure travel and outdoor gear and
apparel markets.
Consultant Gray & Co - Cari Gray High-end, boutique travel consultant/ operator
http://grayandco.ca specializing in producing luxury active experiences
around the world. Also a freelance journalist for high-
end websites and print media.
Outbound Smokesilver travel: Smokesilver Travel is a tour operator organizing
Tour http://www.smokesilvertr authentic, active outdoor holidays to destinations
operator avel.com across the world.
There's no better way of travelling sustainably than
opting out of combustion engine activities and
walking, riding, cycling, canoeing, sailing

Outbound The Wayfarers – The Wayfarers began as a family of friends, sharing
tour http://www.thewayfarers. fellowship and a love of walking. We specialize in
operator com providing walking vacations that are different,
distinctive and respectful of the culture of the
communities we visit.
Inbound Maritaca turismo “Maritaca Turismo” feels it has a natural commitment
Tour www.maritacaturismo.co to nature (our main work-source). For this reason we
operator m.br attempt to provide a more substantial awareness of
the world we live in, allowing for responsible actions.
Our work educates as well as provides a unique
environmental experience. Each of our customers
becomes an owner of a tree, which he/she plants in a
designated location as a symbol of a greater
environmental awareness.

Here are some pictures of the event

16


Por la tarde continúan las reuniones:

17


Chris handing some information to Alice from the ATTA organization!

And we are also in the AFAR!

18


19


The strategic objectives accomplished include:

• Position the Region of Extremadura and the Shire of “Comarca de la Vera” as a
reference on responsible destination.
• Promote sustainable accommodation in the Region and the Shire.
• Promote sustainable practices and activities in the nature which are socially
responsible.
• Encourage the image of relax tourism of the Region.
• Strategic alliances with international tour-operators specializing in natural and
cultural tourism.
• Contact with tour-operators specializing in hard and soft adventure and active
leisure.
• Contact with media form the sector at an international level, facilitating the
promotion in other countries.
• Contact with professionals of the sector in other regions and entrepreneurs with
similar difficulties and expectations, share knowledge.
• Improve innovation procedures and measures in the company through the
identification of best practices.
• Learn about best sustainable practices, real case studies.

These has been a very productive conference where we have been able to identify and create
a number of associations and future collaborations to attract international tourism to the shire
of La Vera with a focus to responsible tourism in order to promote the sustainable
development of the region.

Understanding Adventure travel means: a travel in the outdoors, with activities, natural,
cultural gastronomical, adventure of any type but with a deep focus on maintain the historical
heritage and developing economically the local region.

Do you think this type of tourism can bring the sustainable development of the region?

Do you think Estremadura can become reference as a adventure travel destination?

Follow us on our blog Rural-Accommodations (http://rural-accommodations.blogspot.com/)

20


Adventure Tourism Research and Trends
Tuesday 2nd October ATWS

After the AFAR Exchange we had a very interesting conference on the Adventure Tourism
Research and Trends!

The speakers were; (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-
featured-content/speakers/ )

• Eric Brodnax from Away.com & AdventureFinder,

Eric Brodnax is a Vice President with Orbitz Worldwide where he serves as General Manager of
The Away Network (Away.com, Outside Online, GORP, AdventureFinder, Trip.com, and
Lodging.com). He joined Away as part of the founding management team in April of 1999, was
SVP of Marketing & Operations during the company’s formative years, and assumed his
current role after Orbitz’s acquisition of the company in January of 2005. As GM, Eric is
responsible for setting the overall strategy and vision for the company including high level
editorial direction.

• Michaela Guzy from Travel and Leisure,

Michaela S. Guzy is the Vice President responsible for overseeing the travel category and
development of new business initiatives for the Travel + Leisure brand. With six global editions
in twenty-four countries, one of the fastest growing travel content websites, and three
Travel+Leisure retail outlets–Travel + Leisure is one of the most recognized travel brands in the
world. In her role, Guzy oversees the brand’s business operations, including sales, new
program development, and industry relations.

• Kristin Lamoureux from the Washington University

Dr. Kristin Lamoureux is the Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the
George Washington University, as well as an faculty member of the Department of Tourism
and Hospitality Management, specializing in destination management, adventure and
volunteer tourism, sustainable and niche tourism development. Currently, her duties include
the oversight of all of the Institute’s activities including the Professional Education Program
and all grants/contracts such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance.

• Shanon Stowell from the ATTA.

Shannon is President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Under his leadership, the
organization has grown into the largest international association of adventure travel
companies with more than 600 members and dozens of tourism boards, major corporations
and influential individuals helping propel industry initiatives forward.

Some of the ideas that were discussed in this session include the increase in the Adventure
travel Market, especially in the UK and Europe where there has been an increase in number of
travelers and money spent. (Top 10 destinations) Spain is still unknown in this market;
21


PURAVERA has been first representatives in this sector. It offers an ideal situation to position
Extremadura and the shire of la Vera as the first destination in the adventure travel market.
The first step has been accomplished, we have put the region in the world map and other tour
operators, destination managers and media are starting to talk about us.

• 70% of the total market is North and Latin America and Europe.
• 40% of the people travelling in adventure travel activity are between 30-40 years old.
• 18% is over 40 years
• 62% have a post-secondary education (20% more than mass tourism)
• Market of 89 Billion Dollars (US) or 89 Thousand Million Dollars (EU)

The domestic travel is also growing from the well-educated which is not the same as the well-
off.

The most important figure is that the expenditure of these travelers is more important that it
seems. A greater percentage of the money spent by tourist stays in the communities where
they operate. If adventure travel is structured and planned correctly it can be the driving force
for local development of the region, it promotes the creation of new business and the much
needed employment in these regions.

That’s why we have a great responsibility and can do a great aid as our activities result in direct
employment for the local populations. This together with the use and promotion of local
produce and services can lead to a viable alternative to develop remote and rural areas.

AFAR Magazine (Study)

China is growing dramatically in middle class citizens which results in an increase in customers
for the adventure travel market. China is beginning to developing at a fast rate and is looking
for energy companies, construction and other products. It’s even introducing in the tourism
sector and their companies are increasing shares in the sector. They are clearly moving
towards conservation products that we are offering in the adventure travel market. The
average cost of trip is around 3.000 $ per trip, without flight. It’s important to note, according
to other studies, soft adventures around 822 $ per week and hard adventures 500 $ per week.
These figures seem to be biased; as these are figures from the general public and not the
operators.

Adventure Market has no mega resorts and promotes development of remote areas with less
need for initial investment and with minimum impact on the surrounding environment.

According to a customer survey, the new tourist looks for the following attractions for
adventure travel satisfaction:

• Historical site preservation.
• Seeing things before the disappear
• Natural tourism (Environment).
• Experiences, new cultures.
• Relax (Hard and Soft adventures) active tourism.
• Authenticity.
22


• First to see a destination.
• Time in nature.
• Increase physical activity.
• Have a good time.

Some Tips:

→ Tour operators: Lower their package holidays with activities as there is an increasing
market with less economic income but with great growth potential.
→ National Geographic, AFAR Magazines: Promote social marketing 360° to get to the
audience and a very fast growing market.
→ Target Smart phones and tablets: Cell phones and smart phones is a growing market,
enable access to your website via phone, possibility of offering on time offers,
possibility of linking to location, be more specific and target your real audience with
what they really want. Greater communication and interchange of information
between company and customer, client, tourist and with other collaborators and
suppliers. This is still on the experimental phase, we still don’t know the results,
haven’t figured yet, but the growth is so dramatic that the cost of not doing anything is
too high.
→ Be careful with new technology and make it accessible through these new systems,
(phones, social media) Make info accessible and correct to see under these means.

23


→ Age range 30 to 40 years; Market these customers, product for these clients,
traditional market is moving to real experiences.
→ Global Rush Gold Report 2020 – estimates that 1/3 of arrivals on this date will come
from Asia.
→ Airlines are and will be struggling with their viability. Take advantage of those seeking
experience and focus on local markets, sell products from A to Z.

What do you think of these adventure travel trends?

Do you think that adventure travel can be the driving force for the development of remote
rural areas?

Follow us on our blog Sustainable Thinking (http://royortiz.wordpress.com/)

24


Sustainability Vs Development / Adventure Tourism Issues – OPEN
FORUM.

This forum was created with the participation of all the ATTA members. A questionnaire was
distributed through the members and companies assisting the Adventure Travel World
Summit. Of the 6 questions proposed the one selected was:

• Fire in the fireplace: How can we structure ourselves to be a force for good?

Forum Experts Included:

(http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-
content/speakers/ )

• Costas Christ – World Travel and Tourism Council

Costas Christ is an internationally recognized sustainable tourism expert whose work and
travels have taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents, including expeditions
to some of the world’s most remote wilderness areas and archaeological sites.

Costas is the Editor At Large for National Geographic Traveler and the former Global Travel
Editor for National Geographic Adventure. He also writes the Go Green Travel Column for
Virtuoso Life, in addition to serving as Virtuoso’s Director for Sustainability.

• Shanon Stowell – Adventure Travel & Trade Association

Shannon is President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Under his leadership, the
organization has grown into the largest international association of adventure travel
companies with more than 600 members and dozens of tourism boards, major corporations
and influential individuals helping propel industry initiatives forward.

• Moe Carrick – Momentum Inc.

Moe Carrick enthusiastically loves to help leaders transform themselves and their companies.
When she is not doing that, she loves to play outside in glorious Central Oregon and can often
be found digging in her garden or running local trails.

In addition, Moe has woven a cohesive and provocative tapestry of personal leadership
experiences, Fortune 100 consulting, academic and institutional learning, keynote addresses,
authorship, strategic partnering, and masterful facilitation.

• Chris Doyle – Vice President, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & Editor,
AdventureTravelNews™

Chris Doyle is a long-time enthusiast of adventure travel who’s gained immeasurable insights
from the people he’s connected with on five continents, and the activities he’s experienced
including whitewater rafting, fly-fishing, rock climbing, sky-diving, paragliding, backpacking,
marathon running, sea kayaking, dog sledding, mountain biking and mountaineering.

25


Since 2004, Doyle has played a key role in Adventure Travel Trade Association’s strategic
direction and development. In addition to overseeing content for
www.AdventureTravelNews.com and www.Adventure.Travel, he’s primarily responsible for
the ATTA’s research, marketing, public relations and communications initiatives, and directs
the content and execution of ATTA’s annual Adventure Travel World Summit, regional
meetings and professional development programs.

Business perspectives on sustainability are changing and not only because is the “right thing to
do” but because it brings more economical value. We see an increasing trend towards being
more sustainable. It’s true that no one is totally sustainable as nobody is perfect but there are
every day more companies moving towards this line of action and seeing the real values of
becoming every day more sustainable not only economically but socially and environmentally.

There are consumer changing trends. For example Wal-Mart is now the leading organic retailer
but 5 years ago was going very badly and had some very bad publicity on the conditions of
work. 5 years ago they responded to the market shift, it was a strategic position that they

26


followed as they understood that 20 or 30% of the market share was too much to be ignored.
For example all the IBEX companies report their triple bottom line, and have code of conducts.

The Millennium Development Goals if endorsed by the tourism sector can aid dramatically for
the sustainable development of communities. One of the issues is that sustainability is very
hard to define and it seems there are many interpretations. We need to work with
communities and with applications to get to common grounds and definitions.

What can we do?

There are various opportunities for merging this paradox: development and sustainability. We
have to be specific with business goals and sustainability, we need to encourage and promote
sustainable practices, combine efforts and communicate them thorough all the means
possible. Teach the adventure traveler about sustainability principles. Never give false
expectations, do not say you do more than what you really do, be transparent and responsible.
Do not blow thing out of proportions.

Growth and Sustainability Paradox:

• Adventure travel has grown in expense of other travel sectors.
• Local travel is more sustainable.
• Important to promote residents about sustainable practices
• WTTC is meeting with ATTA to develop the best practices on sustainable tourism and
sustainable content.

Finally Chris Doyle, representative of the ATTA, talks about the sustainable tourism council and
how it promotes sustainable practices. We are asked if we want to include sustainability
criteria as necessary for members of the ATTA. The vote results in a very mixed voting.

One solution is to include badges on the profile of companies that follow sustainability criteria
and make them visible in the ATTA Hub. (Social Network) This will provide visibility to those
companies which carry sustainable practices and will not be a limiting factor to those who
want to become new members.

We have a great responsibility in the adventure travel sector, which is to balance the
development and sustainability!

How do you think adventure travel could aid in this balance?

Follow us in Rural-Accommodations (http://rural-accommodations.blogspot.com/)

27


Transformative thinking - IMAGINE / INNOVATE / SHARE
Imagine
We had the pleasure to meet Mr. Neil Fiske who has served as President and CEO of Eddie
Bauer LLC since June of 2007. During his tenure he has led the effort to bring the company
back to its roots and reclaim its place as an American icon. He explained how he has
redesigned the image of Eddie Bauer according to its historical background.

Imagine Believe Do

He has worked the great potential of the history of the brand, first real specialization on gear
for the adventurers. He has been able to get out of the difficulties that the company was a
couple of years ago and making great profits by going back to its origin and creating a sensible
story. Some of the things he used were video and the social media, but always combining with
traditional promotion and marketing.

He is the key to their success and was thanks to been able to imagine what he could do for this
company. He launched the First Ascent in 2009 “the most significant line of outerwear in a
generation”, built by some of the world’s best known mountain guides. First Ascent’s final
testing ground was Mt. Everest in May 2009. And, as part of this, Eddie Bauer produced near
real-time daily video coverage of its Return to Everest Expedition – a first in Everest’s history.
Mr. Fiske has also pulled the company’s rich heritage forward bringing the quality, value, and
style of its product back to the standards set by the company’s founder, Eddie Bauer, in 1920.

All of these goals have been achieved because in the beginning he imagined the idea, he then
believed and made his team believe it was possible and eventually became a reality.

Innovate
Keith Sproule is the Tourism Advisor to the WWF-Namibia program office, focused on
development of the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector and support for joint-venture (JV)
lodge and campgrounds in the communal conservancies.

A hands-on travel and tourism industry professional, Keith has been an advisor on ecotourism
policy and planning to governments on three continents. He has worked and traveled in over
105 countries, including many of the premier ecotourism destinations around the world. He
has been a long-term contract consultant with private tourism investment projects,
international development banks and government agencies in Egypt, Belize, Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia and Cyprus among other destinations.

He focused on the idea that tourism can be a tool to education. He put the focus on innovating
to prepare packages with children and to make them learn and be aware of other cultures.
Travelling can be a education experience and can aid the young to broaden their views and
want to learn more about other cultures and ways of living. He finished his speech by calling
for more packages including children and focus on giving that little extra which will make an
effect on children and will open their eyes to other philosophies in life nad want to preserve
them.
28


Share
Finally for the last part of the presentation we had Nicky Fitzgerald who opened her first hotel
in 1982 at the southernmost tip of Africa and since then has opened, operated and marketed
over 60 luxury safari lodges and boutique hotels across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and India.

In 1994 she was employed by Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) as Operations
Director and moved across to Sales and Marketing in 2001. Nicky was part of the team that
grew CC Africa from 3 to 50 lodges across sub Saharan Africa, and later in India, in all the great
wilderness high spots – Masai Mara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Okavango Delta, Victoria
Falls, Namib Desert, Kruger National Park, Kahna and Bandhavgarh National Parks, to name but
a few. The company employed 2800 people and also ran successful tour operations business in
15 African countries. Many CC Africa lodges are award winning (Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was
voted 2nd best hotel in the world by UK Conde Nast Traveller magazine in 2005) and the
company has been honored with multiple prestigious ecotourism awards – including global
winner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award. In 2008 she was responsible for the
rebranding of CC Africa to &Beyond and repositioned &Beyond’s travel business from being a
tour operator to becoming a luxury travel provider specializing in fulfilling high ticket trips off
the website.

Nicky explain the African term “UBUNTU” and how we should all embrace it in our life.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are." A translation offered by Liberian peace
activist Leymah Gbowee. Similar to a saying: A single straw of a broom can be broken easily,
but the straws together are not easily broken.

Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:

“A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for
water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but
it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves.
The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you
to be able to improve?”

I leave a video which probably aids in the understanding of the term Ubuntu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0qGJCm-qU

Nicky went further and described it as “I am what I am through you”. After her experience
described previously she put forward the idea that we need to share the information to
become more efficient. She explained the great success of the lodges that she has set in south
Africa managed by locals thanks to the process of information sharing where even the
financials are known by all the stakeholders.

Some of the main mistakes we all make were put forward and she recommended that we all
shared our own mistakes as this is the way to learn. Some of the key mistakes included;
Arrogance, “my customer” term, not asking the communities where we operate, “I am
Irreplaceable”, “I am the best”.
29


In the new era of the communication and information the ones who collaborate and share
information will always be better prepared for the changes. We all need to do cooperation
with our competition and this will report more benefits than working separately.

Follow us in Rural-Accommodations (http://rural-accommodations.blogspot.com/)

30


Wednesday 6th October.

Discover, Engage & Deliver Awakening Destinations:
This session began with Christina Heyniger who is the President of Xola Consulting, Inc., which
she founded in 2004. She works with governments, entrepreneurs and community tourism
interests to develop and market eco/nature/adventure tourism products and services. They
have supported clients in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States. She introduced
the different participants and was the manager of the session. This session wanted to put
forward the difficulties and success of some new destinations and how they are trying to
establish themselves as adventure travel, responsible or eco-tourism destinations.

More information about the speakers:
content/speakers/)

First speaker was Liza Masias – Director for Business Development Sales & Marketing,
InKaterra. Liza acts as liaison between InKaterra and its clients and partners. She has broad
experience in hotel management, conservation and fund raising, and a good understanding of
corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues.

Liza previously worked for the Four Seasons Hotel Company, Conservation International, the
Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Special Events Coordinator for The
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC, and Director for Special Events for the National
Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and most recently
Assistant Analyst for InSpire Invest in the area of Social and Environmental Corporate
Responsibility, Oslo, Norway. Liza holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from
Cornell University.

She focused on the business development of InKaterra in Peru. This is a case study of good
practices. She has achieved this great success in such an isolated area thanks to the long term
conservation projects that they run parallel to their accommodation and touristic operations.
They have investigations running for 20 years which aids in Latin American countries were
instability can lead to great changes when political power changes. The other key issue is that
company has sustainability within the company and transmitted to all the workers. She says
how thanks to the investigation programs that they run they have been able to survive some
of the difficulties that the country has had to live by. This is a great example of ecological
research for conservation funded by tourism activity.

The second speaker is Mads Pihl, a tourism consultant in Greenland’s Destination Arctic Circle
Region, an emerging adventure destination on Greenland’s West Coast.

He was once a social anthropologist but nowadays those skills are employed in a bottom-up
approach to destination management in a vast Arctic region where tourism actors are few and
far apart.

31


He spends most of his time either on the road connecting with local companies, encouraging
networking and collaboration or he develops an online presence for the regional brand
through various social media and websites.

Greenland is approximately the size of Mexico and the region where he works is the size of
Greece.

He begins his presentation with the idea that Costa Rica was the first Marketing Emerging
communities (1998) focusing on adventure travel but since there has been other 15 countries
in the world with the same focus.

Some key issues that were brought up in the session include:

• We are not alone, bring NGO,s, Boards, Private business to work together as a
destination.
• Connect routes, use nearby destinations that are more known and promote
collaboration.
• Cooperatives: Ho to make decisions, how to empower, how to train guides in order to
offer a unique and wonderful experience.
• Partnership with local, what to do if the visitor are not coming. Service is vital and the
local people must be trained and be aware of what we want to achieve and promote
local goods, produce and services.
• Attract private capital (Eco-lodge) Facilitate (Equity, state, ownership)
• Responsible investment. (make money but also develop the region and conserve the
resources)
• What do you sell, how you market, what’s different, strategic positioning. How do we
differentiate from other emerging markets!
• Market; analyze what market, what is interesting, link to other existing markets,
potential, future trends, new tourist needs, among others.
• Accessibility: easy to get to, ways to improve, very important for tour operators.
• Identify the Problem – Opportunity. I.e. what is causing the threat to conservation; is
there a need to change (Social Employment); design tourism offer to develop and
support local communities.
• Turn the challenge into an Asset.
• Developing destinations need to offer the link between education and training of local
population is vital.
• Use luxury like stay in your rucksack in a unique environment experiencing a place
where very few people have visited. I.e. Greenland; sleeping on a dog pulled sledge.
• What is first, accommodation or services? Infrastructure or experience?

Stanley Crossick Blog: http://crossick.blogactiv.eu/author/crossick/

European China and US relations Blog!

32


Private company & Administration

Management in private involves good relations with both local and international partners. You
have to be present in order to adapt to changes (be out there business and associations). BE
part of the local community but also market internationally, awards always help to create an
image for your company or destination.

Tour operators and DMO´s (Destination Management Operators) have to work together to
create products and services that follow the destination strategy. Private normally moves
quicker that the public institutions so we have to take this into account. Is very important to
never be isolated, connect with everyone in your area, with turoperators, reservations, local
business, competition, administrational the key stakeholders.

33


Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism – Case Studies:

The Crash Course Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism took place in the Alvie, Morlich &
Glenmoore room. It was organized by the Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org/),
which was represented by Federico Solano.

Federico has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in
different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the
Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004. During his time in the Rainforest
Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and
European countries, and supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt
responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in
promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple
strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.

More information on speakers: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-
agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/)

The session began with a small presentation of the Rainforest Alliance. The organization sets to
create best practice guides (Forest, coastal environments or anywhere). They create these
tools to aid companies in different areas around the world to increase their sustainability
strategies and efforts. It provides tools and a work structure which has been adopted in many
different areas with a lot of feedback to improve these tools.

They provide a certification for sustainable practices in tourism, through this guideline. We are
aware that as nobody is perfect, therefore no business can be 100% sustainable but this
program aids companies in order to work in the direction of sustainability and implements
these types of strategies. They look for win-win situations where business and local
communities benefit from the developments and give back to the community some of the
industry incomes in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage.

They also have an agricultural, forestry programs among others. The agricultural is the second
biggest, a figure is for example of the British tea consumed, and 50% is certified by the
Rainforest Alliance. In terms of the tourism program it is growing rapidly and has various
programs, some targeting companies and best practices, the sustainabletrip.org organization
which educates travellers, or the green travel program.

After this initial presentation there is a panel of companies that will debate some of their
actions and activities that they have carried out in order to try and increase demand for their
sustainable products and practices.

• Enrique Umbert of Mountain Lodges of Peru http://www.mountainlodgesofperu.com

Enrique experience has been a learning process towards sustainability. He focused on this idea
of comfort versus sustainability in terms of managing expectations. We must understand that
we are selling emotional comfort and quality. He educates the visitor and explains why things

34


are done in a certain way. He transmits what are the benefits to the environment and local
population of carrying the operations in the way they do.

• Veronica Napuri Peirano of Tucano Reps. Peru http://www.tucanoperu.com

She works in a rural community in Peru which is self-sustained, (agriculture, fishing, school).
She focuses on local development but through community integration. The local people are
the ones who identify their needs, for example a small playing area for the children, a
greenhouse with vegetables so that they don’t have to travel so much to trade. For example:
The visitors are the ones who learn the language of the local inhabitants. Shows a great job of
conservation of ancient cultures and how this community continues to live in the traditional
way and it is they who have the control to continue in this manner or introduce products and
services of the "new world."

The program plants trees in the rainforest and there is a strong commitment to keep this
community intact and living in their traditional ways.

• Randy Durband of Travcoa http://www.travcoa.com/ Robin Tauk & Partnerts
www.robintauck.com

Randy has been part of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and now manages his has his own
organization with other partners. HE put forward the idea that there is a clear change towards
more sustainable practices and especially in tourism sector. There are EU guidelines, carbon
emissions reduction Schemes and programs, surveys show there is a societal change occurring.
People are becoming more aware of our impacts on the environment and there is an increase
in people and tourist who look to reduce their ecological footprint. There is the greening of
suppliers as airlines improve efficiency, companies want to do community development and
tour operators travel and audit the greenness of their suppliers.

For example: Country walkers, (Part of TUI) has created a step program certification and
awareness campaign to educate, clients, providers, suppliers and all their supply chain to
reduce their impacts and becoming more sustainable. Another example he put forward was
travel agency that has zero emissions as it neutralizes through forestry programs and using the
lower emissions jets.

• Rob Holmes of Green Living Project http://www.greenlivingproject.com

The represent a unique production and distribution team for US & North America. They carry
over 175 events around the world. They create movies on experiential travel, we had a
meeting with them and we are trying to produce a documentary on the shire of la Vera.
According to their expertise the Nicaragua market needs more work in ecotourism and Costa
Rica has been the leader year’s back. Their final goal is to educate the consumer. Today they
are working on Granada in San Jose for their next event.

www.greenlivingproject.com

Conclusions:

35


European Escapes are increasing and there are everyday more people looking for different
type of travel:

• Sustainable Travel – standards are evolving and more and more companies are
increasing their sustainable practices.
• We need to unify these standards. There are many standards and in order to compare
different destinations these need to be unified.
• Increase in the number of certifications (TI) carbon offset arena.
o Formation education, it’s a process. No one is 100% sustainable!
o Standards A to B and finally to C. (Long term Process)
• Sustainableairlines.org set criteria and international language for transport companies.

From this session we can identify the changing trends in travel and how the sustainable market
is increasing and been every day more demanded. Its changing from an additional value to
something that is been demanded by the adventure traveller.

Adventure Travellers want more sustainable practices to be implemented.

Would you be willing to pay a little more for your holiday if you knew that this money is used
for recovery and protection of natural environments to recover cultures, communities and
ancestral customs?

36


COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Sustainable Tourism Best Practices: From theory to Action.

This session focused on real case studies on best practices for the promotion of sustainable
tourism. How to achieve the theoretical goals and how to carry out these practices in the real
world:

Some of the speaker in this session included;

• Erika harms - Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and
Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation.
www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org / www.gstcouncil.org/
• Mandip Singh Soin FRGS Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK.
http://www.ibexexpeditions.com/
• Lennart Pittja, Pathfinder Lapland http://www.pathfinderlapland.se/
• Federico Solano – Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org)
• Natasha Martin – Xola Consulting (http://www.xolaconsulting.com)

XOLA consultants have experience working with governments and organizations of all sizes in
strategy development and business management. XOLA also provides market research.

You may find more information about the speakers in the following link:
content/speakers/).

At the beginning the idea that there is a growing threat from mass tourism was put forward.
The middle class population of china and India is growing dramatically and tourism is a fast
growing market in these regions. These middle class people will be travellers in the near future
and we have to target them and be careful with the consequences that will result. One of the
key issues that we need to address is to harmonize and group the different certifications of:

• Green tourism
• Ecotourism
• Cultural tourism
• Adventure travel
• Community tourism
• Sustainable tourism

The GSCT is developing a global standard on sustainable practices in tourism:

The Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria.

Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and
Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. In this role, Ms. Harms manages

37


and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the GTSC, a cutting
edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements
for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.

She set out to explain the process of elaborating the guide which has been summarized into 37
criteria and some of the goals that have been achieved include;

• Created a platform for information exchange and the feedback process.
• Maximize and promote collaboration of all the stakeholders
• Cultural aspects of different communities
• Reduce negative impacts, (not only economic but also environmental and social)
• Develop the local economy,

The criteria is set to mark a minimum level, is used as a guideline, it’s a baseline accredited
standard, it certifies the certifiers. It is based on the 4500 existing standards and more than 50
certifications. It’s been a long consultative process where all stakeholders have given their
input.

There are four main actions or principles in which the indicators have been structured. The
indicators will be defined locally, from the global principles or guidelines.

A. Demonstrate effective sustainable management.
B. Maximize social-economic impacts.
C. Minimize the cultural negative impacts.
D. Minimize the environmental negative impacts.

Implement criteria trough the Global Sustainable Tourism Council

• Sets out to transmit, communicate, expand the criteria, best practices
• Educate about the sustainability principles
• Generate and increase market share
• Increase public awareness.
• Collaboration between tour operators, hotels, transport and all the key stakeholders.

After the introduction of the Criteria we have some practical examples form the speakers.

After the introduction of the Criteria we have some practical examples form the speakers.

Starting with Mandip Singh Soin FRGS; who likes to be described as a Mountaineer, Explorer,
Eco-tourism & Adventure Travel Specialist and Motivational Speaker.

Mandip is the only Indian to be awarded the Ness Award by the Royal Geographical Society,
UK, for mountaineering and polar expeditions and encouragement of youth exploration. He is
the Founder President of the Ecotourism Society of India and a Judge for the Tourism for
Tomorrow Awards for the World Travel & Tourism Council.

After more than 30 years in the Himalayan doing diverse expeditions, he has been being doing
diverse project for the development of remote areas. He focuses on identifying the local

38


issues, it is vital for the sustainable development to use the local knowledge and it´s key to
empower the local population and understand what their real needs are.

The second speaker was Lennart Pittja of Pathfinder Lapland; a Sami person from Sweden who
started his business as a small family company in 1995. Their philosophy includes:

"We work close with nature and are proud of our origin and our history. We wish to spread
knowledge about Sami culture, but also how to enjoy being close to animals and nature. For
reasons of sustainability and "Natures Best" we always find new trails, a way of not leaving
marks behind us".

Vägvisaren - Pathfinder Lapland's products are certified as "Natures Best" by the Swedish Eco-
tourism Society, one of the first systems in the world for Eco-tourism certification.

He focuses on 6 pillars:

• Education culture
• Local economy
• Environmental impact
• Conservation
• Create responsibility, respect from guests to their culture
• Quality, reliable.

The success factors that he has identified include;

• Right Staff
• Government Support
• National Label
• Stakeholder process
• Practical tool
• Local and social content (Create rural value for visitors)

Visit Sápmi, has developed Sustainability Criteria including Social and Cultural Aspects of the
Samis.

Tourism Community Management plan.

Lennard works normally with small groups, 5 or 6 days journeys in the Lapland sami region.
The trip is to guide the reindeer between Sweden and Norway. (Sapmi: area or land, Sami is
the person) Their parents and ancestors where reindeer herder and wanted to keep their
traditions and cultural heritage. This is the Spring Migration, Reindeer herding.

Next speaker was Federico Solano who brought the approach from the Rainforest Alliance.
The programs they are developing in order to certify organizations with the rainforest alliance
badge. The programs include agriculture, forest and now they are beginning with the tourism
one. The main goal s of the tourism program includes;

• Improve operations, become more sustainable in the whole process

39


• Build business awareness and increase in numbers.
• Create global standards that can be compared in different locations.
• GSTC are a guideline for companies to follow if they want to improve their behavior,
become more transparent and responsible for their operations.

Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria as backbone of Training Manuals:

• Best management goals of sustainable tourism.
• Tool for operators.
• Best Management Guides for communities.
• Heritage based tourism (UN Guidelines).

www.sustainabletrip.org

For the last 8 years they have been looking at 100 inbound and 500 outbound tour operators.
Now they are in the process of creating a blog where they will share the experiences.

GSTC helps to:

• Create a common language worldwide.
• Strengthen organization through its tools.
• Increase benefits to organizations and local communities.
• Establish partnerships, connect stakeholders.
• Accomplish their mission: which is to conserve and broaden sustainability issues to
more population, increase awareness.

What do you think of this tourism criteria, could you be interested in been certified in
sustainability issues?

This certification is a guideline and all indicators and action differ from location to location but
the principles are global. Do you think this is a correct approach?

40


41


Jueves 4 de Octubre Thursday 7th of October.

CRASH COURSES –Social Media – Digging Deeper … beyond Awareness
Building.

At this session at the Adventure Travel World Summit in Scotland 2010; we had the
opportunity to meet Scot Adams president of Birchbark (http://www.birchbarkmedia.com/)
and Kathy Dragon founder and CEO of Travel Dragon (http://traveldragon.com/). For more
information on the speakers, click on the link.
content/speakers/)

Scot Adam president of Birchbark Media, a marketing and PR agency, has been helping to
market and develop outdoor tourism businesses for over a decade. His passion for outdoor
experiences and entrepreneurial determination has allowed him to excel his field. He is the
main speaker in the presentation and takes us through the whole process.

The course begins by presenting the idea of the fast growing potential of social media. Some of
the key figures include;

• Facebook figures:
o 2004 – 1 Million users.
• Twitter: Over 50 Million twits a day.
• Youtube: has more than 24 hours of video uploaded per minute.
• Google: shows 20% daily new keywords.

What hasn’t change is the need to have a strategic reason for doing social media.

• Still need to sell a value, what it is, what you give and how do you differentiate from
the competition.
• Need to be transparent, authentic, human (Relationship, be yourself)
• Give and don’t sell!
• Listen and ask and do not tell.

Kathy Dragon puts out what’s growing interest on social media at the moment.

• Trip advisor – trip friend: Initiative with Facebook worth to have a look. It combines
the recommendation of trip advisor with Facebook friends so that the opinions from
trip advisor can be selected from your Facebook friends. Now the opinions in which
you rely can be only from people who you know and therefore reducing the possible
bad publicity from competitors or opinions from people unknown.
• Google Images: is growing quickly and with new features, important to carefully tag
and name all our pictures so that it can be indexed by the search engine.
• Facebook “Like” new feed optimization, algorithm
42


o Feeds
o Places
o Groupon
• Presentation on the Hub –
o Edde Rank Algorith
o When posting, wait for interactions, wait until people connect, different
people interacting is better,
o Post diverse, fotos, links, questions, do not post constantly!
• Facebook Places
o Is going to take over Foursquare and Gowala
• Google image: improving search overhaul, put URL always (traffic to your website)
• RSS feed.
• Social media is beginning to be used as a guide, especially twitter is very linked with
events and can be a very informative tool for up to date information.

Scott continues with his presentation with; why do you need Social media?

• Maintaining relationships with clients.
• Forming new relations.
• Brand Building.
• Promotion.
• Managing disasters.

Promotions have become measurable. Use promos as dig or stumbleuoponit.org. Facebook
can use wildfire for promotion, 2 people travel trip, group deal. Use Facebook and video
promotion are some of the ideas proposed during the session.

Offering

• Collect data.
• Engage fans (gifts).
• Facebook adds, free, try it (69$ led to 400,000 interactions).
• Creative offer, look in the hub post link.

Measure

The main tools include Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Flickr but we have to look where our
customer are. Do a Google search blog, twitter, Facebook and look a t the left panel in Google
that has a lot of features. www.google.com/Insights/search (Keywords)

Look for influencers or anyone who is sharing your content. Add this website add icons for like,
tweet and share to our website. Use shorter link (short URL). YouTube, also there is Vimeo for
higher quality or flick tv.

How many followers are re-tweeting, we need to look for quality not quantity. Engagement –
How often people engaging. Business page on Facebook. Youtube statistics on when are
people leaving. Twitter analytics tools very interesting.

43


Conversion.

How to measure

Just ask where you arrive in the web-page to the customer, good feedback to trace the most
effective mean for each company.

Free tools include; Social metrics addict.

Group Exercise.

We are a Backpacker Company that is present in Facebook and twitter.

Goals:

1. How to inform social media
2. Find people that like it
3. Establish the influencers

Design a strategy for new or existing products, how to attract people.

• Get the buzz
• Who are the influencers (Adprosumers)
• Make content (select the right people. Market analysis
• What is different about us!
• Viral Video- post video of what we offer different to the competition.
• Flip video and the camera!
• Look for ADPROSUMERS
• Look for LEADERS

Assignment: We are putting a new product on the market (tent) and we want to use social
media marketing.

• Contest on youtube, video.
• Who is your consumer, how do they use social media, target wright people through
the wright means.
• Use other platforms, coordinate,
• Story telling: When my backpacker saved my live – come and shoot our video.
• Instead of video write a story which will be later put as a video.
• Outside magazine credibility.

44


• Take it to a concert, event (I.e. take the tent to try it) where you can record different
experiences.

Include information about destination or product in videos:

• Re-tweet, re-feed it.
• Identify.
• Gives prices.
• Advocacy.
• Encourage people (From each group).
• Post on their blog.
• Include information of sector in the blog.
• Always respond in company language.
• Mistakes or errors, do not debate, be transparent honest.
• RSS feeds.

As a conclusion we need to remember that these are tools are not a strategy, so we need to
define it before we embark on social media.

Follow us on Rural-Accommodations. (http://rural-accommodations.blogspot.com/)

45


Visual Story Telling – Producing & Publishing Quality Video on a Dime.

Speakers at this session in the Adventure Travel World Conference include;

• Chris Noble – General Manager, WorldNomads.com
• Davin Hutchins – Founder and CEO, NOMADSLAND.

More information about the speakers on this link:
content/speakers/)

Quaity Video on a Dime.

• Use video as a differentiator / inspire.
• Story telling is key.
• Use tweets, Facebook, press releases. (combine efforts)

HD Video is now under 1.000 Dollars. Editing distributing has become affordable.

Signature Videos:

• 4 or 5 minutes
• Multiple versions (for T.V., for Youtube, spot, event, etc.)
• Story telling is key, emotional video, tell an experience, and make people feel part of.

Problem with current videos:

• Week stories, week interviews, week characters.
• Need to plan, look for the most suitable story, promote and boost the best features.
• Amateurish video (no budget) bad quality can be understood if it’s done by our clients,
with a certain camera.
• Be authentic, genuine feeling; try to express an adventure a unique experience.
• Video tell a story, emotion, interview staff, and look for a unique story.
• Try to capture the attention in the beginning, tell a story and the impact on the
ending!
• Hotel – Pictures might be better, stationary.
• PPP (People, Planet, Profit) – reduce carbon footprint, unique person, trip experience.
• Soft selling, no not be commercially aggressive. Just mention is a great place and is
brought to you by us!

Dragonfly Expeditions & Nomads Land, example of video, storytelling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sozYI8yhgUY

World Nomads also showed a video of a development project in Costa Rica, but it’s still not
available as its part of a series of documentaries: I leave a link to their website where there are
many example videos:

• YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldNomadsTV
46


• Website: http://www.worldnomads.com/
• Collaborating with Nat Geo Adventure:
http://www.natgeoadventure.tv/au/Channel.aspx?Id=387

Planning: (type of travel stories)

• Story of the new or good
• Story of the people
• Story took place in an ecosystem, environment, surrounding
• Story of trekking, activity
• Story of the founder, traveller’s information, staff.

What camera to buy:

• Sony, hard drive, extra batteries, computer backup. (1.000 $).
• Canon Camera with HD (1.000 $).
• Revel T+I HD videos 19x20 full HD.
• Different outlets, products – same video can be edited to be used in different events,
platforms. The important is to record in high quality in order to be able to modify, use
different segments, versions, for website, YouTube, sell your product or promote the
destination, among others. (B-B, B-C, Episodes, etc.)

Camera characteristics:

• Flipcams- take it with you in helmet (small for adventure stories, where a conventional
camera is difficult, quality is not that good but viewer understand so it’s no problem,
can even be given to tourist for capturing special moments.
• Audio: use external audio (directional, etc. pump audio, license music)
• Flash memory or hard drives (local Audio Band)
• Lighting (very important, (information available at the ATTA´s Hub).
• Battery life (charge and buy extra for whole day shooting).

Use strong characters

• Use interviews (anchor interviews 30 minutes). Unite questions between the ones
interviewed so that you can move from one to another character. Use personal,
historical, mechanical, transitional, philosophical or whatever ideas that are the strong
and differentiating characteristic of the company, destination.

Script writing

Transcribe everything; write what to do, create a paper cut, what you are going to do! One
page is about two minutes of filming! Record short scenes never more than 10 seconds (the
less time and more diverse the better).

Editing:

• Never more than 20 seconds (except interview)

47


• Ideal is 4 to 5 seconds!
• Tools
o Windows – Adobe premiere, Sony vegas, movie maker.
o Mac: Final cut studio, final cut express, Imovie.
• Always good to have B-role: this is material of scenery, beautiful features, sunsets,
landscapes, visitors, film for the editing for crafting the story, set the mood. (always
well categorized will aid with professional teams, will reduce costs if you can give this
material)
• ½ of the budget is for editing, 1 day shoot takes two days editing!

Video Hosting:

• Think of Ipad, Iphone, Mac! Make them available for all platforms.
• YouTube; Free / HD / Mobile compatibility /
o Mediocre analytics, views, referring rate, sharing engagement

Managing Expectations:

• YouTube; do not expect to get all your visits from this channel alone, use leads, from
blog, promotion in order to get significant impact and views.
• Do something to ignite the video!
• Singular vs Collective voice (me, me, me / us, us, us) conservancy spirit, us believe
more people do it in our community destination. Promote more videos.
• These are just tools, it requires good marketing (conventional) connect tell people. Mix
of traditional and social marketing is vital.
• Promote interactions, What do you think?, ask for comments, send video, share.
• New conscious / broad audience.

Distribution:

• Google displays, ads, ad-words, Facebook adds.
• Email, Facebook, YouTube, connet the different means of communication, marketing.
• Happy if a visitor is in the website for 5 minutes.
• Facebook 1 ½ minutes.
• Think of users with small screen i.e. IPhone.
• We have the first 10 seconds to draw them and keep them! Reach media.

48


In conclusion, we identify that the realization of commercial and advertising travel videos can
be done at a relatively low cost and with a professional finish when we plan properly.

You may follow our activity in our blog Rural-Accommodations.

49

Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010

Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010

Similar to Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010 (20)

More from Roy Ortiz

More from Roy Ortiz (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010